Before Godric's Hollow
by redsoxlvr04
Summary: Starting in Lily and James' seventh year, Before Godric's Hollow explores all the unknowns in the Potter's life. How did Lily and James thrice defy Voldemort? What was their wedding like? What was Harry's infancy like? All this and more inside.
1. Chapter 1

Reunited

Lily raced down the steps, paused in the hallway, then raced up the steps once more. Where was that darn quill? Catching sight of the clock in the hallway, Lily swore quietly under her breath, and then proceeded into the parlour where she immediately began tossing couch cushions and pillows all over the place.

"Lily, it's time to get going," her father called, his head just poking into the house from behind the heavy, oak door. "Tuney! Get down here and say goodbye to your sister."

Lily laughed sardonically to herself. Petunia. Wishing _her_, Lily the freak, goodbye. It wasn't so long ago that Petunia and her were the best of friends. Who knows what they would have been like had Petunia gotten accepted into Hogwarts as well.

With a sigh, Lily checked her worn knapsack once again for the scarlet and gold badge with the gleaming HG. Yes, it was sure to be a long year once again, and her Head Girl duties would surely take up most of her precious free time, but at least she was now on friendly terms with Potter. After all, he would be living in the adjoining suite at the very top of Gryffindor tower, and most of her waking hours would be spent with him. Only three weeks before, he had sent her an owl proudly informing her that he would be Head Boy. Lily was shocked – she was sure the honour would have gone to Remus Lupin, who had been Prefect with Lily for two years, but alas, Potter would be better suited, as he would be available every day of the month. Not that she held Lupin's problem against him, of course. After all, she too had a quite unwelcome monthly visitor as well.

Lily was already buckled in the car by the time her mother had finally managed to force Petunia down the stairs. Lily knew better than to use magic in Tuney's presence, so she cranked down the window and said good-bye in the sweetest, sisterly tone she could procure. Petunia snarled her own aggravated reply back and headed back to the front door before the obligatory "See you at Christmas" escaped from her mouth.

"Now to King's Cross!" Mr. Evans proclaimed as he slid into the drivers seat, thrilled to catch yet another glimpse into his daughter's magical world.

The drive from their home just north of London was not long, and before she knew it, she was hugging her parents near the barrier of platform 9 ¾.

"Please write, Lily. And send some letters to Petunia as well. She may not show it, but she still loves you," Mrs. Evans said. Though they had said these same goodbyes six times previously, Mrs. Evans eyes still filled with tears before parting with her youngest daughter.

"Study hard, Lily. Don't get too caught up in all the glory that comes with being the eldest. And no boys!" Lily laughed at her father's admonitions and gave him a hug and kiss before stepping back.

"Have a good year!" her mother called as Lily set off briskly towards the brick barrier and then vanished out of sight.

The view of the Hogwarts Express steaming at the station was one that Lily always loved to see. Yes, the scarlet train meant ten long months of studying, hard work, and exams, but it also meant that she'd once again be reunited with her best friends. The thought made her heart warm, but before she attempted to meet up with any of them, she lugged her trunk and knapsack onto the train.

Finding the designated Head compartment, Lily entered, slightly pleased that no one else had yet arrived. She quickly changed into her school robes and finally pinned the treasured badge to the front of her black robes. She pulled out a small mirror from her knapsack and admired the badge as well as the way that it discreetly complimented her scarlet hair. She was smiling at her reflection when the compartment door was thrust open.

"And you call me big-headed," the familiar, deep voice said with a hint of a chuckle.

"You know very well that you are, indeed, quite arrogant, Mr. Potter," Lily said, her austere tone a farce as to the way she truly felt once he was again reunited with her. "And I wasn't admiring myself, I was just-"

"Checking out the badge of honour," Potter finished for her. "Yeah, I've done that quite a few times myself."

As Lily turned around, she noticed that Potter was already clothed in his school robes, his matching scarlet pin gleaming in the sunlight that poured in through the train window. Had he worn the robes through Kings Cross, arousing suspicious looks from muggle bystanders?

"I put these on with Padfoot in his compartment," Potter answered, his mind barging in on hers once again. Out of all of Potter's quirks, Lily found this particular one to be the most annoying. She was quite certain that he was not using legilimency, but his uncanny ability to read her mind was becoming slightly . . . problematic as of late.

Lily was too lost in her own thoughts on Potter to notice him drawing ever closer to her, and she almost jumped when Potter's silky black robes brushed against her revealed forearm, which was now sprouting goosebumps like crazy.

"I missed you this summer," he almost whispered, his deep voice echoing through her body.

"I uh, you know, didn't miss your balloon of a head, Potter, but I have to admit, after last year, I don't dread seeing you anymore."

"Oh?" Potter laughed. Lily silently swore, knowing her response had been completely out of context. A simple, "that's nice" would have done. "She _likes_ me!" he shouted to an absent audience.

Lily slapped Potter over the head with the back of her mirror, chuckling while secretly wondering if his proclamation could be true.


	2. Chapter 2

Dumbledore's speech was, as always, fantastic, upstaged only by the Welcoming Feast. After stuffing herself full of steak and kidney pie, (no, Lily would not thrust herself into one of those leaf-and-water diets) Lily met briefly with the prefects to reveal the password to get into Gryffindor tower (mimbulus mimbletonia), and then proceeded to find her own dormitory.

Lily was the first to climb through the Fat Lady's portrait, barely able to contain her excitement upon seeing the Head Girl's dormitory. She had been told of grandeur, marble floors and mahogany walls, gold-plated names on the end of the bed and a private Jacuzzi. When Lily reached the top of the staircase, however, she was faced only by a stone wall. What the . . .

Lily examined her surroundings careful and then noticed it; the small indentation in the stone. Lily stuck each of her fingers in it to no avail – the wall seemed solid and impassive. Then it hit her – of course! The badge! It wasn't flat like the prefect badge, and Lily was pretty sure it would fit perfectly into the indentation.

She was right. By simply pressing it into the wall, the solid slab of stone in front of her pushed in and to the side to reveal . . . a perfectly normal dormitory. There was one four-poster bed, her trunk, a cabinet, a window, a worn scarlet rug, and a stout wooden door. Lily pushed open the door to find a bathroom, complete with tub and shower, with a door on the other end. Was that to the Head Boy's room?

Lily dropped to the floor and attempted to look under the crack. She couldn't see anything but a frayed end of a scarlet carpet. That definitely was another dormitory but . . . surely Potter wasn't sharing a bathroom with her. This was, after all, Hogwarts. They were in school. Dumbledore surely would not permit any sort of . . . debauchery to go on inside of the gates. She stuck her pinky underneath the door, somehow convinced that feeling the floor of the room behind the door would give her some sort of a clue as to what was currently going on, when-

"You know, Lily, you are a witch. You could use, I don't know, _magic_ to break into my room."

Lily looked up at James, her face looking somewhat guilty though she had committed no crime, or at least, she supposed she hadn't.

"Now that you're done trying to sneak a peek, can I shower in peace?" James asked. The tall boy slipped off his dark robes.

"Potter! I'd appreciate it if you'd wait until I left the room to disrobe, thank you very much."

Lily moved towards the door before James trapped her with his strong, Chaser-toned arms. "Sure about that?" James' voice echoed against the stone walls and Lily's skin started to flush red.

Lily pushed James off of her and threw herself against her door. "Stop it, Potter!"

James looked at her from the corner of his eyes, a hint of a smirk on his face. "What, Evans? Stop what? All I'm trying to do is take a little shower and you just freak."

"Don't call me a freak!" Lily shrieked, her voice rising way above an acceptable level and her face as scarlet as the Gryffindor flag.

"I didn't . . . huh?"

"I am not a freak and I will not stand for people attempting to seduce me and then proceeding to call me a freak. It's for this very reason that I can't stand even an inch of your skin, Potter."

"For what very reason? I never called you a fr . . . that word. I just was trying to say that you were getting all worked up over nothing."

Lily didn't respond, she simply thrust her door open and disappeared behind the wood with a solid slam.

She busied herself with unpacking and attempted not to think about the body underneath the spray of the shower. Just as Lily was about to climb into bed, she heard a soft knock on her door.

"What do you want?"

"Lily, I just-"

"I never said you could come in." The sound of the door closing slightly pleased Lily.

"Right, I just wanted to say that I am sorry for whatever I did that pissed you off tonight. I wasn't trying to make you angry."

Freak echoed once more in Lily's head, and then a blurry picture of Petunia passed through her mind. Petunia at age thirteen, slamming her bedroom door in Lily's face. Petunia avoiding her that first summer back from Hogwarts. Petunia refusing to talk to her at the dinner table. Petunia earlier that very morning, reluctantly coming to the car door and not even wanting to say good-bye or I love you or let's be best friends again.

"Lil, don't cry," James whispered. He had suddenly appeared at the foot of Lily's bed, and Lily let him sit down without putting up a fight. Lily looked up at him, her eyes large and doe-like. She shook her head slowly and looked down at her lap.

"I brought you a chocolate frog," James said, handing the treat cautiously over to the teary red-head. James got up and left, looking at her once more before closing the bathroom door behind him. Lily fingered the treat, then placed it carefully on her bedside table before slipping underneath the covers. So maybe it hadn't _exactly_ been his fault.


End file.
